DEEP chief heaps praise on NPU

Connecticut’s top energy official on Monday heaped praise on Norwich Public Utilities, saying the city-run agency has done “systemically better” than its peers across the state in developing a comprehensive strategy that lowers costs while investing in new forms of power production. ...

Connecticut’s top energy official on Monday heaped praise on Norwich Public Utilities, saying the city-run agency has done “systemically better” than its peers across the state in developing a comprehensive strategy that lowers costs while investing in new forms of power production.

“This was a chance to see a community that has moved out in front on every one of those elements that make for a thoughtful, systematic 21st-century energy policy,” Dan Esty, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said after a tour of NPU’s wastewater treatment plant.

Esty’s visit to Norwich came days after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy reiterated in his State of the State address a commitment to a revised energy policy that includes a newly created $15 million Microgrid Grant and Loan Program.

Esty said on Monday up to a dozen projects may win funding through the initiative and referenced a pending application by The William W. Backus Hospital that seeks $1.5 million to construct a microgrid on Matlack Drive.

NPU already operates two microgrids — one in the Stanley Israelite Business Park and another at the treatment plan, which covers much of the downtown sector.

“We’re very eager to learn how this community has launched two microgrids, and how they’ve been financed,” Esty said. “I think this utility has taken a lead in that breakthrough as well.”

Microgrids are small-scale versions of the centralized utility grid that can disconnect and operate independently if need be.

During his brief tour of NPU’s 44 Falls Avenue wastewater treatment plant, Esty stopped at a micro-turbine that uses captured methane gas to produce electricity and was shown a recently upgraded, $7.3 million digester used to break down biodegradable material.

“I think what we really got today was a confirmation that NPU is doing things right, and we’re anxious to continue to expand,” NPU General Manager John Bilda said.

Esty said much of this year will be spent translating the state’s new energy strategy “into on-the-ground results.”

“The fact that it has been done here on a number of fronts was something I wanted to see firsthand,” Esty said. “Good policy is hard to do. It requires people to stand up and make the case, and these guys have done it.”

Jim Sullivan, chairman of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, said officials also spoke privately with Esty about Norwich’s natural gas pipeline, which will expand into a dozen neighborhoods following voter approval of an $8 million bond in November.

“It just simply validates for us the strategy we’ve allowed our employees to pursue over the past several years,” Sullivan said of Esty’s time in Norwich. “It’s proof positive we’re on the right track.”

Page 2 of 2 - Esty agreed.

“It really is a learning trip for the entire team that’s here. What you see is a community that works together. You see a commitment of resources and education as a core element,” he said. “I’m stunned by the broad base of support for what’s been done.”